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Hey fellas, I haven't been playing Deadfire in years, last time I have completed it with a pure monk and it was fun. Now I want to try a multi class with a Paladin, and although I know it is quite hard, but I would like to make a tanky Paladin with a magic flavor. My first option is a Bleak Walker/Fury Liberator, as I would love to cast lightning on foes. My question is: is there anything else the Paladin would benefit from in the Fury class (other than spells)? Second option is a Templar, but I remember the priests being kind of underpowered in the game. So far this is the one I like the most in terms of roleplaying, but I wouldn't really know how to build it. Last but not least, I have read everywhere that the Herald (Paladin/Chanter) is a crazy OP multiclass, but the whole concept doesn't sound convincing. Also, what races would you suggest for this builds? Thanks!

Dergano Ploi was born in Aedyr - his parents are elven Aedyrean Ambassador Laxon Ploi and deceased human Aerdyrean fleet officer Lt. Leanna Andra Ploi. Although Dergano Ploi had little exposure to the military world of his mother, he attended the fleet academy as well as university and earned an advanced degree in "philosophy of mind". He then served as the captain's counselor aboard the Aedyrian flagship "Venture" before joining the Shieldbearers of St. Elcga and leaving active military service. He is also trained in diplomacy, beguiling, languages and linguistics, often making him a valued first contact team member. Again, it's his skills in interpersonal contact which can help to turn the tides in difficult encounters. He's also able to give valuabe advices which will protect his team members as well as using tactical positioning, confusing and marking the enemy so that his fellow team members can deliver the killing blow. Dessert is his favorite part of a meal, and one of his greatest favorites and weaknesses is cookies and cakes. Paraphrasing famous Aedyrian philosopher-humorist Wirt Hogas, he always says "I never met a pastry I didn't like" - Rauatai Sweet Pie is his very favorite. He also likes to trow the dices and once beat some cretin smug in a celler in Stalwart at "Dozens". "If you're looking for my professional opinion as counselor: he's nuts." - Dergan Troi to his comrades when meeting Lord Raedric - =================================== Counselor Ploi =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Paladin (Shieldbearer) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wood Elf (alternative: Island Aumaua) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Aedyr - Colonist -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (char creation): MIG: 15 CON: 08 DEX: 08 PER: 15 INT: 17 RES: 15 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 2, Lore 6, Mech. 0, Surv. 14 -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Intense Flames ® Shielding Flames (!) Scion of Flame ® Shielding Touch ® Weapon Focus: Soldier Weapon & Shield Style Deep Faith Arms Bearer (!) Abilities Flames of Devotion Coordinated Attacks(!) Distant Advantage (a) Faith and Conviction (a) Inspiring Triumph ® Lay on Hands ® Sacred Immolation ® Reinforcing Exhortation (or Aegis of Loyality if no priest) Sworn Enemy (!) Zealous Focus ® --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Cladhaliath (*durgan refined, *marking, *coordinating, *burning lash) & Outworn Buckler (*legendary, *durgan reinforced) Weapon set 2: arquebus Weapon set 3: arquebus Boots: Boot of Zealous Command Head: Munacra Arret Armor: Osric's Family Breastplate, then Ryona's Breastplate Neck: Cloak of Protection Belt: Coil of Resourcefulness Rings: Ring of Changing Heart, Ring of Deflection Hands: Spirit Spiral Quick slots: scrolls & figurines ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hi! Another colaboration of Jojobobo and me. This time I evolved a char concept around Jojobobo's idea of having a Shieldbearer who is kind of a diplomat and using Sworn Enemy + Zealous Focus + charm to generate a lot of charm-crits (because Sworn Enemy's ACC bonus works with everything). With this a paladin could somewhat substitute a cipher (when it comes to mind control) and add even more usefulness to his class. Since it only takes two abilities (that you can always make use of with a paladin) I tried to spin this idea of a diplomat/supporter/mind controller further and make this paladin a jack of all trades when it comes to support besides the usual Lay on Hands and stuff. So I threw together some of the nice build ideas that are already out, namely the Darcozzi Forward Obrserver (buff ACC) by Torm51, Sh!t's on Fire (high FoD damage) by limaxophobiacq and the Rauatai Captain (buff deflection) by SImpleEnigma - kudos to the authors of those builds. Check out their stuff, too. Then I shook the whole thing and out came this whizkid: 1. Boosting party's deflection (and other defenses): 1.a. Shielding Touch (+12 single ally) The Shieldbearer can use several abilites and items to raise his comrades' deflection. First of all there's Shielding Touch. To my surprise, despit being a passive addition to Lay on Hands, it works like Reinforcing Exhortation - this means it doesn't stack with other non-passive deflection buffs like Cautious Attack, Shields for the Faithful and also not with Reinf. Exhortation. But it's still good because team members that need healing from Lay on Hands usually are under attack - and that deflection comes in handy then. It's also good that it works on yourself (Reinf. Exh. doesn't). 1.b. Shielding Flames (+10 AoE): This is even better. When using FoD you will provide +10 deflection for nearly all party members (with high INT the AoE is realy big). +10 doesn't sound like too much - but it stacks with everything, and that's great. 1.c. Outworn Buckler (+5 to all defenses AoE) Everybody knows it's one of the best shields in the game. The herald bonus stucks with everything - with high INT you'll cover the whole party - awesome 1.d. Inspiring Triumph (+7 to all defenses AoE) Another AoE deflection buff. On kill you will raise deflection by +7 in the same AoE as Shielding Flames and it also stacks with everything! So when you shoot somebody with intense FoD + Scion of Flame + Sworn Enemy and he dies the whole party will instantly get +17 deflection - nice. Later, with Sacred Immolation, it will be triggeres all the time. It's an awesome synergy. 1.e. Reinforcing Exhortation It seems to be better than Shielding Touch since both don't stack, but seriously you can't have enough deflections boosts because they don't last forever. Once a shielding touch expires or if you want to give deflection only without healing, this is good. If you feel it's too much redundance with Shielding Toch, use Aegis of Loyality instead - it beautifully fits the theme and is very useful if you don't have a priest (which I had). All in all you can pile up +47 deflection on a single target, +22 in a big AoE and +12 to all other defenses in the same AoE. This guy turns even squishy party members into (tiny) tanks. 2. Providing ACC for an ally 2.a. Coordinated Attacks (+10 single ally) It's like marking - if you attack an enemy and one of your party members does this as well, he will get +10 ACC which will stack with everything else. 2.b. Marking Weapon (+10 single ally) Like above. It's like Coordinated Attacks on a weapon. Stacks with everything 2.c. Zealous Focus (+6 AoE) What can I say - you know it. You will boost the ACC of a single ally by 26 points if you attack thge same target. If you flank, you will provide the equivalent of 36 points of ACC. This is extremely helpful against tough enemies which are difficult ot hit or to disable. With this guy, annoying dragons and such with affliction like prone, stun etc. is easy. 3.: Crit-charming or -dominating 3.a. Whisper of Treason With Munacra Arret you can get an early item with 3 uses per rest which has fast cast. It also has +10 ACC which is nice. I took Enigma's Charm first but retrained because it has this annoying 5 sec delay and is an average cast. I seldomly used it, so I took something else instead. Later you can buy Spirit SPiral which will give you 3 more per rest. 3.b. Sworn Enemy +15 ACC for your charms, fast cast, no hit roll, lasts for the whole encounter, has an awesome range and also will give you +20% damage when the time comes that your charms wear off - nice! 3.c. Zealous Focus: +6 ACC for your charms 3.d. Ring of Changing Heart: the dominate effect has no ACC bonus and it's only 2/rest, BUT it can be cast outside of combat, and that can be a big plus. 3.e. Distant Advantage: the main reason (besides the background) I took Wood Elf. +5 ACC for your charms. SInce Sworn Enemy has such a long range, most of the time the enemy you want to charm is far away so this works. And what most people forget: it also works with the edges of your Sacred Immolation if the AoE is big enough and also gives you +5 deflection and reflex against distant enemies. This is good against spells and arrows as well as wing slams or breath attacks. You can pile up +36 ACC for your Whispers and +26 for your Dominations. It nearly always crits. A crit with Whisper oT with high INT leads to a charm that lasts longer than 20 sec. By the way I insta-crit-charmed all dragons (which were not immune) right at the start of the encounter which makes those fights a lot easier. 4.: Killing Stuff 4.a. Distant Advantage: with your arquebus shots you will have +5 ACC as well as for enemies which are at the edges of your Sacred Immolation. 4.b. Zealous Focus +6 ACC for everything, including FoD and Sacred Immolation. 4.c. FoD +50% burning lash and +20 ACC with that two arquebuseses. 4.d. Intense Flames +25% lash for your FoD arquebuses 4.e. Burning lashes on all your weapons 4.f. Scion of Flame Boosts the cumulated burning lashes from 100% to 120% - most of the time your additional burn damage will be higher than the original damage from the arquebus. With this, killing a weak foe and triggering Shielding Flames as well as Inp. Triumph is easy. It also boosts yout Immolation of course. 4.g. Coordinating on your Cladhaliath Since you always want to attack a foes that another team member attacks in order to trigger marking and stuff (see above), coordinating is one of the best enchantaments for you. Sure, your spear is not a dps tool and you are fairly slow without any big dmg mods, but the high ACC and the +25% bonus damage are nice nonetheless. 4.h. Mob Justice or The Mercyless Hand or Second Skin (optional) Mob Justice not only adds to the ACC of spear and coordinating, but also lets you get Cladhaliath a lot earlier. Tkis also counts if the paladin is not the MC. The Merciless Hand can balance out the lower crit damage of arquebuses. Since your high ACC with FoD often leads to crits, this talent would be a good pick. Second Skin is not so superuseful here, but if you don't want to use Cladhaliath (or want if for a different char) then Shame & Glory is your only single handed melee alternative. This also works of course if the paladin is not the MC, like with Mob Justice/Dozens. 4.i. Runner's Wounding Shot (optional) When using an Island Aumua, you can take Runner's Wounding Shot and an additional arquebus. Skip Deep Faith then. This will deal similar damage than an FoD shot - instead of 90% burniung lash you will have 80% raw DoT. With the Coil of Resourcefulness your switching works well without any talent. 5.: Tanking Defenses are great (as always with paladins). With Ryona's Breastplate and Outworn Buckler as well as Weapon & Shield Style you can take over the role of the main tank or a second tank or play an offtank role, it doesn't matter much. Your defenses are good enough to tank dragons for a short time (until the charms or the disabling works). Alltogether you will have a very sturdy frontliner who can - boost deflection/all defenses up to +47(single), +27/+12 (AoE) - raise the ACC up to 36 (flank+single) and +16 (flank+AoE) - charm up to 6 times per rest and dominate 2 times rest - most of them crits - tank & kill Enjoy!

"Let's go to the Golden Dragon and ask for protection." "Why should we go to a fancy exotic restaurant? How are they supposed to... Ahhh - THAT Golden Dragon! Right!" - Two shop owners who got bullied by thugs - Menu of the day: Appetizer: a fresh shout served with an echo First course: fiercest barbarian yelly Main course: sliced heart of fury with a taste of hunt Dessert: sweet minor fatigue, served with a bit of anger - Menu card of The Golden Dragon - The Golden Dragon is the wild, unconventional, but also posh counterpart to a usual bodyguard – distinguished by his frightening and threatening presense and his recklessness and his predilection to substitute raw aggression for discipline, but also by his showy style and his bravado. Lacking the accuracy and strong deflection of a fighter, the Golden Dragon makes up for this through intimidation, savagery and abilities tailored for repelling groups of enemies. The Golden Dragon is a challenge to deal with on a battlefield, though he is vulnerable if his nice shiny armor gets splattered with gore too much. The Golden Dragon loves to show off and uses illeism - usually referring to himself as "The Golden Dragon". Some say this man wasn't even born, but created by two animancers who realized their ideas of a perfect bodyguard... =================================== The Golden Dragon =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Barbarian -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Pale Elf -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia - Colonist -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (character creation): MIG: 18 CON: 03 DEX: 04 PER: 16 INT: 19 RES: 18 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 4, Lore 6, Mech. 0, Surv. 14 -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Elemental Endurance (a) Barbaric Yell (!) Heart of Fury (!) Threatening Presence One Stands Alone ® Dragon Leap (!) Savage Defiance (!) Thick-Skinned Echoing Shout ® Talents Veteran's Recovery (!) Weapon & Shield Style (!) Stalwart Defiance ® Superior Deflection ® Spirit of Decay Weapon Focus: Ruffian Accurate Carnage Bear's Fortitude ® --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Bittercut (*legendary, *corrosive lash, *durgan refined) & Dragon's Maw Weapon Set 2: Captain Viccolo's Anger (*corrosive lash) & Little Savior Boots: Fenwalkers Head: Liripipe of Thinking Armor: The Golden Scales (*Durgan Reinforced) Neck: Cloak of Comfort Belt: Binding Rope Rings: Ring of Deflection, Ring of Protection Hands: Siegebreaker Gauntlets Quick slots: stuff ----------------------------------------------------------------- First of all - the basic idea for this build popped out of Jojobobo's head in a threat about barb tanks some months ago. We discussed some things and afte a while agreed that I would post the build (if it's viable) while he wanted to follow some different build ideas in detail (look at his Silver flash chanter build!). So, thanks Jojobobo for all the input! Your ideas proved to be very viable: this was the best main tank I ever played so far. Some people may know that I absolutely loath those pure tanks who can only soak damage and do nothing else - well, this is not one of those. Thanks to Heart of Fury and Bittercut, ombined with certain bashing shields, this "tank" did TWICE as much damage as my dps wizard in the same party - while being VERY sturdy even with dumped CON (more on that later). The main idea of this build is not only to stack defenses, but also to debuff enemies' ACC values. This not only helps our barbarian to tank better, but it's also benefical for our whole party's survival. Although he's slow, he should also be able to dish out good damage per hit. This is important for carnage and esp. later for HoF (attack speed doesn't matter there). When thinking about lowering enemies' ACC, things like dazing (-10 ACC and also -2 PER which leads to -12 ACC overall), frightened (-10 ACC) and so on come to mind. A barbarian can lower enemies' ACC in an AoE with abilities like shouts & leap, via items with auras, via spell binding or scrolls and also via carnage: ACC debuffing abilities: - Barbarian Yell frightens in a faily big AoE (-10 ACC) - Barbarian Shout terrifies in a really huge AoE (-20 ACC) - Dragon Leap dazes in an AoE which size is comparable to carnage's (-12 ACC) - Echoing Shout dazes in a ridiculously long AoE line (-12 ACC) - Threatening Presence causes sickened in a quite small AoE when you don't move. PER gets reduced. (-1 ACC) ACC debuffing via carnage: - Glittering Gauntlets daze on hit (-10 ACC) - Captain Viccolo's Anger causes Minor Fatigue on hit (-10 ACC) - Lost Thayn's Reach causes interfering on hit (-5 ACC) ACC debuffing via aura: - Executioner's Hood's Intimidating Presence causes frightened in a quite small AoE and has reduced ACC (-10 ACC) - Redfield's Harbinger aura causes -3 ACC in a quite small AoE (-3 ACC) ACC debuffing via spells/scrolls: - Elryn's Jacket has a spell chance of Eyestrike that blinds (-29 ACC) - Stuck via Binding Web or Binding Rope (-5 ACC) - Forgotten Tear of the Beloved has a daze spell chance (-10 ACC) Maybe I forgot something. Of course you could also use a weapon with overbearig or stun to lower enemies ACC to 0 if you crit - because disabled foes can't hit you. Based on this, I developed the barb you see above. Of course not all the things I mentioned above stack. So I tried to develop a char which isn't too micro-intense, can stack a good amount of ACC debuffs without too much fuzz, who is sturdy and - maybe most important - looks nice. At the same time there are only two bashing shields that are good with carnage & HoF: Badgradr's Barricade and Dragon's Maw. This limits the style options significantly I'd say. Here you see the outcomings. Let's talk about how I do encounters with him at lvl 16: 1.: The barb enters combat and then casts Echoing Shout, prefarably if a priest buffed his ACC. Enemies who run towards him get damaged and dazed: -12 ACC. 2.: The barb casts Stalwart Defiance - I know, why start healing right from the start? Well, because it also gives you +10 to all defenses and the start of the combat usually is the time where a main tank needs defenses the most. Think about the opening salves of Lagufaeth, wizards and stuff. His defeses are now +10. 3.: Then he yells his finest yell and causes frighten all around him in a big AoE. Best thing, again, would be to yell after your ACC got buffed by a fellow priest or so. The enemies' ACC is debuffed by additional 10 points. 3.: He jumps into the place with Dreagon Leap where he will hit most enemies with his HoF. If there were enemies without dazing, now they usually are dazed and even more damaged. 4.: He triggers HoF with Bittercut + Dragon's Maw, dealing tons of damage with the high dmage of bittercut and Taste of the Hunt from Dragon's Maw, not only diond raw damage but also completely healing (if even neccessary). Most of the time this means death for all enemies in range. It's awesome. 5.: If enemnies survived, he switches to "full tank mode" with Captein Viccolo's Anger & Little Savior and causes Minor Fatigue via carnage while buffing his and fellows' defenses via herald enchantment: -10 ACC of enemies, +5 to all our defenses, add. +5 to deflection. If you want, you can take Brbaric Shout, too. It#s a very strong debuff and totally fits the theme, I also had it for some time. But I realized I seldomly used it because usually the yell was enough. It doesn't stack with frightened and is per rest - so thought I'd take something else instead. All the debuffs and defense buffs stack, meaning we will have the equivalent of up to +47 points to all defenses - on top of your already great deflection and other defenses (which are balanced). This can be buffed further by any deflection or defense buff: the things the barb does stack with everything which is a great plus. So, for example a Circle of Defense would lead to +62 to all defenses (if you add up ACC debuffs and defense buffs). YOu could even buff deflection further with Shields for the Faithful - stacks! This is also the reason why I could easily dump CON to 3: you seldomly get hit. And even if: survival bonus (+60% healing) combined with Veteran's Recovery and Taste of the Hunt lead to full endurance all the time. And even with 5 CON (3 base + items) this barb has as much endurance as a fighter with 10 CON. Of course the early game is a more challanging this way. And sure, fortitude is a bit low - that's why I took Bear's Fortitude so that my defenses may be balanced. Of course you will meet enemies that are immune to dazing of frightening - but it's not very common that enemies are immune to both. And even then those encounters are not the toughest ones, so it doesn't matter at all. By the time you get HoF you can have Badgradr's Barricade, which works perfectly well with this build. In fact I'd say for offense it's even better than the Dragon's Maw - so it's a matter of taste. Down below I will also add a variant of this build with Badgrad'r Barricade. I took it until I got Dragon's Maw. Before the WHite March I used a large shield without bash with a common sabre - and thanks to the high PER it worked quite well for me. Because Dragon's Maw has this special look, for me the only armor that fits to it are the Golden Scales. And since now everything's golden, I had to put on th Liripipe of Thinking, because it's the only headgear with an enchantment that looks cool with this outfit. Of course there are better helmets out there - but I can't play when I must always fear that the dyrwooden style militia may arrest me because of fashion crimes. --- Variant A: The Golden Dragon with Godansthunyr ------------------------------------------------------------------ When using Godansthunyr, you can skip Spirit of Decay and take Vulnerable Attack instead. It also works well with HoF and it looks really badass with the shield and armor. Variant B: Veildancer ---------------------------- When using Badgradr's Barricade until the end things get difficult with your outfit. You can either use a generic armor that can be dyed (crucible knights' plate looks nice) or you choose the monk's robes from the Abbot of the Abbey of the Fallen Moon. It's ok to have lower DR. Thick Skinned + Second Skin will give you +5 to physical damage and you will be faster. It's a bit more dps and a bit less sturdyness (while still being very sturdy). You could swap a bit MIG for CON if you want, but I tried it with the original stats and it works fine. Too bad there are only unenchatned helmets that look cool with this outfit - but on the other hand: the game is so easy later on that you can favour style over power, right? This doesn't look as a golden dragon at all - hence the alternative name. Also: Bittercut's green stain doesn't look so great with all that turquoise, so I took Resolution instead which also works really well - with Thrust of Tattered Veils you'll do crush damage, so the singe damage type isn't too bad. And annihilation with HoF is nice of course. Here you can also skip Spirit of Decay and use Vulnerable Attack or something else you like - Penetrating SHot works with Thirst of Tattered Veils without slowing you down in melee - this can also be a good pick. Or Gallant's Focus maybe?

The Iron Hammer This dwarf calls upon his ancestors' spirits to aid him in battle. They surround their progeny while he fights, blurring his outline and confusing, or terrifying, his enemies. He fights defensively and outlasts his enemies by locking them down in engagement and picking his moment for devastating retaliatory attacks. He can engage what seems like a whole screen of enemies (and gets better the more he engages) and provides persistent distraction to the whole group, making them all flanked and open for deathblows (including his own ripostes). If you pair the Iron Hammer with any AoE Rogue, that opening salvo (if you wait for engagement) will be all deathblows. *Update notes: I tweaked quite a few abilities and changed the gear to reflect. I also tested a min/max version of the build (stats and gear changes, abilities stayed the same) and it worked amazing on just about all the fights I put it in. I also did some testing solo and it was just too annoyingly slow for me to continue, but he was able to defeat all of the encounters I tried (with cheese tactics like summons and invisibility resets). NOTE: I have now used this build for Eder and it worked amazingly. Game Version: 3.1.1 Difficulty: PotD (+all Upscale, no mods) Solo: Untested Race: Dwarf, Mountain Class: Swashbuckler (Unbroken/Trickster) Home: White that Wends Background: Explorer Theme. Starting Stats (w/Berath’s Blessing): Mig: 10 Con: 8 (10) Dex: 8 (10) Per: 19 Int: 10 (11) Res: 18 Min/Max. Starting Stats (includes BB): Mig: 15 Con: 8 Dex: 2 Per: 19 Int: 16 Res: 18 Skills: Theme: Active: Split Athletics/Alchemy; Passive: Cap History Min/Max: Cap Athletics; Cap Metaphysics Abilities (In suggested order of selection): Disciplined Barrage Escape Fast runner Knockdown Fighter stance Weapon & shield Confident aim Determination Tactical Barrage Riposte Hold the line Bear’s fortitude Vigorous defense Persistent Distraction Unstoppable Fearless Superior deflection Deep wounds *Guardian stance (if in a party) / Unbending (if solo) Armored Grace Weapon specialization Adept evasion *Overbearing Guard (if in party) / Bull’s will (if solo) *Unbending (if in party) / Snake’s reflexes -or- Conqueror Stance (if solo) Unbending trunk Deathblows *Weapon mastery -or- Unbreakable (for a last ditch save) Weapon slots: Theme. Last Word (Threatening) & Akola’s Apex Ward (Shark teeth counter & Hide & Tooth) Min/Max: Kapa Taga (All Comers & Champion’s relic) & Cadhu Scalth (Luminous Harmony) Gear: Blackened Plate Helm Token of faith Blackened Plate Armor (Usher’s beckoning & Death in Life) Ring of Minor deflection Ring of greater regen Rakhan Field Boots Upright Captain’s belt Bracers of greater deflection Theme: The Gift Bearer’s cloth Min/Max: Cloak of Greater Deflection -or- Champion's Cape *Your choice of trinket (I normally have detonator shard on this guy as an emergency heal on back line, but Eye of Rymrgand is great defensive one) Nalvi (dog):+1 resolve and Reduces armor penalty for whole party *Put DPS pet, on Eder if you have that BB Consumables: Potion of Spirit Shield Potion of Moderate Healing Mohora wraps Coral snuff if you want to use drugs

I am currently dungeon delving in Od Nua and I replaced Edér with Kana (for his quest), and Kana is just a so much better tank than Eder while also dealing massive damage with Dragin Trashed. And summons on top... Only, I don't plan on keeping Kana for long, so I wonder if I would be better off making Aloth my second tank next to Pallegina? I don't feel very confident with only 1 tank in my main squad, I tried that in Od Nua 4/5 a bit and it was rough. Without Eder (or better: with Edér as my switcheroo companion), I would only have squishies in my main team aside from Pallegina, so I would like to make one those squishies into a tankie It's pretty much Aloth or Hirvias, and I don't see any mention of druid being a decent tank anywhere..? I read a few bits here and there that aloth CAN work as a tank, just couldn't find any guide for that..? Would making him into a tank be too extreme/niche? Or would I have to ditch all his other roles for it? Currently he is pretty much my main debuffer, with the occasional damage output, but mostly debuffing. I wouldn#t mind making him a tank+debuffer, but sacrificing both roles he currently fills seems meh to me. I asked my buddy if he knows anything, but he only played a melee Aloth in Act 1.

This is a WiP thread you'll always get the most updated version of this guide here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uAOT1_2JV0Do_9a8NhjYEdiGWh_JTiL3UcreR1qUHvY/edit?usp=sharing Harder than a Pillar: A Fighter's Handbook Warning: Be prepared for a long read. In this guide I'll try and help you build the best fighter possible for party play, and and while this guide is not made with RP in mind, i think even roleplayers will find at least some of the advice useful. I only plan to write about the tank fighter for now, however I'll add advice for DPS, hybrid and even ranged builds in time. I doubt most of my advice is useful for solo play, but if any of you guys have any luck beating the game as a solo fighter I'll gladly add your tips here if you want to. I'll also add any builds you send me to the guide. Updates 18/04/2015 - Expanded race and attribute descriptions and tweaked the sample build a bit based on feedback. Color Coding Red: Don't pick this, this is a poor option. Orange: An ok choice. Can be useful in some situations but not often enough to recommend it. Green: A good choice. Light Blue: A must have, usually the best possible option. Class Features Bonus Talent: Constant Recovery Skill Bonus: +1 to Athletics, Lore, and Survival. Endurance: 42 +14/level (High) Health: Endurance x5 (High) Deflection: 25 (Very High) Accuracy: 30 (Very High) A great starter pack you are accurate, you are hard to hit, and even if you do get hit you have a nice hp tank to absorb it. Constant recovery is just awesome for non tank builds, however, tank builds will still find it useful in the early game since their deflection and DR are not that high yet. The bonuses to skills is not bad either since you get a bonus to both Lore and Survival are useful in combat. The Tank Fighter The job the fighter was born to do, abilities like defender and his natural resiliency means he can tank like few else can, and while your damage is low, your accuracy is good enough to be able to hit your actives so you still have some degree of battlefield control. This is a character you can send into a room full of enemies alone and he'll still be standing even after minutes of fighting, enabling your party to buff themselves in the mean time. Still this is a character that is only really needed in PoTD since you really need the extra deflection this character brings to the table, people playing in other difficulty levels will get a better millage from a hybrid fighter. Races While you can pick any race and still be a relatively good tank even in PotD. Still this is an optimization guide and since some races are still better than others. Aumaua (Costal): Attribute bonus is bad, but the racial is nice for a tank since your health can drop fast while you are prone or stunned and many enemies may also decide to switch targets. Aumaua (Island): Might bonus and the ability are near useless. Better for those that like to open with a ranged weapon. Dwarf (Boreal): Might bonus is useless and damage bonuses against certain enemies are not something you need. The con bonus does not help but in the current meta no build ever maxes con. Dwarf (Mountain): Might and con bonuses don't help you do your job better. The racial actually it's too situational to actually choose him for this. Elf (Pale): Bonus to perception is useful and the ability is nice to have. I don't rate it better because of the propensity of the AI to target your squishier party members instead of you with special abilities (ie shades and their cold attack). Elf (Wood): Bonus to perception is useful but the ability being a ranged attack bonus is useless for a tank. Human: Bonus to resolve is nice, but the extra accuracy from the racial only helps if you still have actives remaining by the time you reach 50%. Orlan (Hearth): Nice attribute bonuses and while the ability at first may seem useless for a tank, a crit also give double duration for a knockdown, the way the ability is phrased it should also give the bonus even if your ally is attacking with a ranged weapon. Orlan (Wild): Best race for a tank, attributes in the right places and and awesome racial ability that helps you evade some of the worse status effects. Godlike (Death): Attribute bonuses are useless. Ability is best suited for a damage dealer and you are not a damage dealer. Godlike (Fire): Attribute bonuses are bad, but the racial is nice for a tank, nothing better than becoming more resilient when your are getting a pounding. Godlike (Nature): Attribute bonuses are useless. And while the racial ability gives you some extra con when you are damages the extra life will not help you that much. Godlike (Water): Attribute bonus are bad, but the racial is one of the best ones for a tank. Most of the times you get hit hard it's because you are suffering from a status effect like stun or para, so you cannot really defend yourself or your party members. Attributes Res > Per > Int & Con > Might & Dex Might is not needed, you have low base damage since you are using mostly fast weapons, an extra 20% damage from a good might score is a waste of points. Either dump it hard or leave it at 10 since it helps in the early game. Dexterity is not a really useful stat but sometimes you may want to get two knockdowns fast and a really low dexterity score can be detrimental in this situation. Constitution is not really important but you should not dump it unless you want a really bad fort save. You have enough endurance even for the hardest fights so you don't need to any points here unless you are dumping might. Perception is mot as important as resolve since your ref save is high thanks to a sword and shield style talent. You may wnat to lower this a bit if you don't want to dump dex. Intellect is important, i find that the extra prone duration allows the rest of my party to kill one or two mobs you are not engaging without taking a sweat. A 14 second prone on a crit is just glorious. Resolve is your most important stat, it adds deflection and will save, should be maxed. Fighter Abilities Armored Grace: A waste of a talent for a tank. Clear Out: It's one of you few limited resources, but a great opener for fights with many tough enemies since you can disable 2-4 enemies and engage the remaining ones. Confident Aim: Even if your accuracy suffers for the heavy shield you can always swap to a high accuracy set to use an active ability. Critical Defense: You are not gonna get many crits with you high deflection, Defender: The bread and butter of the build, take this ASAP. Disciplined Barrage: It's not a bad ability per se, however there is usually a better choice every time. Guardian Stance: Forces you deactivate Defender. Into the Fray: Useful to pull and debuff an enemy harassing your party without having to move. Knockdown: Your only other choice at lvl 1 is disciplined barrage, so this one is a no brainier. Useful to help your damage dealers to position to beak engagement or even to drop an enemy that decides to ignore you and hit your party. Unbending: I recall only one fight where this talent could have been useful. Unbroken: Take this if you you don't have any item that grants second chance. You are not gonna die a lot, but when you do it's nice to have some kind of backup. Vigorous Defense: Useful to avoid a nasty spell or ability that's about to hit you. Also helps turning crits to hits. Weapon Specialization: Even if you pick this you are not gonna do significant damage so you might as well skip it. Fighter Talents Constant Recovery: An extra hp every tick is not worth a talent. Bonus Knockdown: An extra knockdown is cool, however only pick it after getting more useful talents. Offensive Talents Weapon Focus: The extra accuracy is nice, for hitting with your actives. Peasant is the best choice since you get both spear and hatchet, Adventurer is good too for the flail. Extra Damage Against X Talents: You base damage is pitiful, so that extra 25% will not help much. Gunner and Marksman: Even if you use a ranged weapon every now and then i wouldn't spend a talent to improve those few attacks. Interrupting Blows: Tank weapons usually have low interrupt and even if they are fast you low dex and heavy armor make you attack slow enough to make this talent worthless. Bloody Slaughter: Your crits are a joke. Modal Abilities: They all force you to deactivate defender, so not one of them is useful. Envenomed Strike: A nice ability for anyone who ain't a tank. Defensive Talents Superior Deflection: Extra deflection is always nice. Weapon and Shield Style: +6 extra deflection just for using a shield is good enough for a talent, the bonus to reflex is just the icing on the cake. Hold the Line: You already have defender. While the extra enemy engaged could be useful, there are a couple of items that grant this talent too. Save Boosting Talents: Many are just plain useless, but Bull's Will and Mental Fortress are useful since many effects that target will actually take you out of the fight. Cautious Attack: Useless since it cannot be used while defender is active. Graceful Retreat: The only reason to reposition is because you lost the aggro of many mobs, that also means that probably not many enemies are engaging you. Utility Talents Elemental Talents: Since base damage is not good enough to benefit from the bonus, getting the talent for 5DR vs an element is not worth it imo. Shoot on the Run: Since we can't throw our shields we have no use for this talent. Fast Runner: Tanks work best when stationary. Deep Pockets: 4 slots are more than enough. Arms Bearer: The Island Aumaua racial is considered one of the weakest ones. You can pick this to make them feel even worse about it, but that's it. Quick Switch: If you learn to time your switch you'll never gonna need this talent. Wound Binding: The only reason to use this is that your health is really low, but then if you are at that point you might at well rest before getting into another fight. Field Triage: Worthless. One of the reasons to pick Kana early is so he does not get this. Items Since I'm trying to make this guide as spoilerless as possible I'll avoid mentioning specific items. Remember not to be stingy with consumables they are cheap and easy to craft. Armor: The best quality plate armor you can find. Second chance is nice. Resolve or perception bonus are nice too. Crushing or Lightning proofing help to increase the armor lower resistances. Weapon: While any Expectational or Accurate weapon will do, you may want to have both an naturally accurate weapon like a dagger, spear or rapier and a hatchet for the extra deflection, a flail is nice too. Other Slot Items: Extra saves and deflection are a must but you'll usually use your rings for that. Get bonuses to perception and resolve first, and constitution and intelligence second. Bonuses vs ugly abilities like prone stunned or charmed are useful. Food: Drakest Rauatai Cookies and Ixamitl Ricepan are you default food. Dragon Egg Dish is good for longer and tougher fights. Potions: Keep the best endurance and regen potions you find in your quickslots. Any potion that grants extra endurance, DR or deflection is useful too. Scrolls: Any defense buff is good for you. Scrolls of revival are a must for those times that you end up as the only party member not downed. Sample PotD Build: The Tiny Smart Fighter Race: Wild Orlan Class: Fighter Region: Aedyr or Ixamitl Plains (Bonus Resolve) Background: Slave (Bonus to Athletics and Survival) Might 8 Constitution 10 Dexterity 10 Perception 16 Intelligence 14 Resolve 20 Lvl Ability Talent 1 Knockdown 2 Weapon and Shield Style 3 Defender 4 Wary Defender 5 Vigorous Defense 6 Weapon Focus (Peasant) 7 Clear Out 8 Superior Deflection 9 Into the Fray 10 Bonus Knockdown 11 Disciplined Barrage 12 Mental Fortress This build will tank your party though PotD with authority since he is extremely hard to and hit boasts really nice saves. His accuracy is good too while using his spear and his actives have a nice duration thanks to the Int bonus. With defender active an exeptional heavy shield and a hatchet, you reach 140 deflection for hard fights, for easier battles you can use a light shield and a spear which gives you enough accuracy to get a crit or two if you are lucky. Depending on party composition you may be able to tweak the build (ie priest buffing deflection for tough fights).

Like the title says I would love to hear your builds that would fit well together. 1 Tank 1 Melee DPS 1 Ranged 1 Magic 1 Healer Custom characters all. Thanks in advance!

Is it possible to trigger disengagement attacks from push/pull abilities? For example, My tank as an enemy engaged and my cipher successfully casts Amplified Thrust, pushing the enemy away. Would this trigger a disengagement attack? Cheers.

This is just a sketch. Was thinking about old style healer. Classes: Templar Shieldbearer of st Elega Priest of Eothas Idea: Tank with small/tower shield, throw some buffs, have alot of heals, including fast ones. When bored summon pillar of fire from Priest to gain Virtuos Tryumpf. Could throw decent amount of buffs (care less about Power Level) or blind enemies. Stats: Int 18 very important buffs Mig 15 heals Res 13 need some, probably Per 12 Nice to have Con, Dex cant dump Races: Natur godlike, natural synergy with easy migh but could be nerfed Moon Godlike, more heals Pale elf (elemental defense), Mountain Dwafr/WoodElf/Hearth Orlan (resistances) Weapons: Small Shield (offensive) Tower Shield (defensive) Flail Priest Spells: Pick one more per level, it is not like we could cast more than 2. At each level need 1 spell "I am totally going to cast it always if can". Try to mix heals/buffs/dmg. So can adapt to situation. 1, Sunbeam (free) Restore 2, Withdraw (free) Pillar of Faith 3, Watchful Presence (free) Consacrated ground 4, Circle of Protection (free) Tryumph of Crusades 5, Revive the Fallen (free) Searing Seal(optional) 6, Minor Intercession (free) Pilar of Holy Fire 7, Resurrection(free) Storm of Holy Fire, Paladin Active Powers: Lay of Hands + Greater Lay of Hands (fast heal) Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance (more heals, and defenses) Flames of Devotion + Shared Flames (buff ellies, could combo with Inspired Triumph) Glorious Beacon + Inspired Beacon (more dmg from allies) Priest (neutral) passives: Mostly buff our casting to be faster, or hit harder. Weapon and Shield Scion of Flame Practical Healer Rapid Castig Spell Resistance Potent Empower Paladin passives: Mostly survival, we can get Triumph with Priest Spell + kill steal with FoD Deep Faith Divine Purpose Aegis of Loyality Inspired Triumph Virtuos Triumph Stoic Steel Party Composition: True pure wizard nuker still welcome. Rogues synergize since they benefit from common blindness. Why Paladin/Priest No use for 28 points on pure Priest, it doesnt matter how many spells per level i know, i could cast only 2. 28 points on Paladin is nice, but could be overkill when it comes to personal defenses, and Zeal goes mostly for Lay of Hands and Inspired Bacon. Personal Defenses of Paladin make Priest last longer, and could even be front body and still cast. Lay of Hands is fast heal we need. Zeolous Aura is instant buff from start Several small buffs from Flames of Devotion, Glorious Bacon, Aegis o Loaylty. Priest spells are sometimes decent or fun. Cant argue with orbital laser. Thoughs?

Is the moon God sworn self heal worth the loss of a helmet? If not what are some good race options for a tank.

Hi all, I enjoy playing rogues, and with new multiclass system introduced in Deadfire I decided to put together something a bit different. I'm sure someone here already done it in the beta, but I'll give it a go anyways; It's a support/riposte tank build that uses Paladin passives (Darcozzi for RP reasons) to stack defenses, and Rogue for Persistent Distract/Riposte combo with nice damage boost via Streetfighter. Skill/attribute wise the character is built for wide range of dialogue options for a richer gaming experience, not just utility/effectiveness in combat. Specifics: Darcozzi Paladini/Streetfighter Human Aedyr Merchant MIG: 15 CON: 12 DEX: 10 PER: 9 INT: 15 RES: 17 Take note that I'm not a min-maxer at heart, nor is riposte the main source of damage since it's a bit lackluster atm, as I hear. Skills points should focus on Mechanics (secondary Athletics) as active, and Insight/Diplomacy (some Streetwise points) as passive. Avoid taking +engagement slots (except Distraction) to get flanked more easily for damage bonus (dagger modal will nullify the penalty). Aura of choice is +acc/crit, let Pallegina handle the armor boosting one Weapon setup is dagger for modal + X (either sword or any other slow 1H for stronger ripostes/full attacks). I'll expand on the talents a bit later because I'm at work Let me know what you think about this concept. Thx in advance

I love the Concept of a Shapeshifted focused Druid, Though, I wonder, do we really need all 5 Transformations ? What's your opinion on the Subclass ? I'd rather choose & Focused my Gameplay on One Form rather than having all five personnaly. Moreover, in my mind, going into a Shifter focused Class, I kind of don't want to rely on "Magic Spells", you know. Developp my Character more on the Passive side of the Ability Tree, where in that case, lacks for some more Passive Options to choose for. I don't really like Leveling up & being forced to choose a Magic Spell, that I don't wanna rely on because of the Nature of my Class, because there's no more Passive Options left to choose from... So here's the thing regardind the Shifter Subclass : I'd like Josh & Devs to take kind of the same approach towards this Subclass. More Options : When Shifted - A variety of Active Abilities if you're aiming at an Active "Micro-Management" Playstyle. And Options to be Passive. Natural Tankiness [skin Upgrade], Regenerating Over-Time [similar to the Fighter Recovery], DPS oriented Passives [upgraded Claws, Auto-Leap when switching target (1 meter range)], Etc. Lol I don't know, just iterating here. I know it kinda implies they'd sort of have to create custom Ability Trees for Forms but, wouldn't it be worth... Anyway, for now I guess my main concern is to be forced to choose a Magic Spell, when I don't want to. I imagine i could try to Multiclass a Shifter with a Fighter [unbroken if I wanna Tank], but I don't want the penalty of Lower Power-Level, Etc. EDIT : Even when Multiclassed, still forced to choose a Magic Spell at some point. [Hint : Any Form + Monk's "Swift Strikes" = Shred your way through Ennemies.] Dedicated Shifted Druid that can Access the highest potential of its Class, Passively or Actively. Also, I'm a Shifter, shouldn't I be able to "Toggle" ? And comeback to my Form ? It shouldn't be regarded as a Consumable thing that is lost because you used it... I'm a Shifter, I'm a Master at it.

In part I of this topic, the goal was to more or less get close to 200+ in as many defences as possible, in light of the +20 Deflection +20 Reflex/Fortitude/Will introduced by the pirate outfits in 3.07 as part of the Deadfire item pack. This was to be achieved by using Wizard's Double, which offers +40 Deflection and so long as you're not hit/critted by any attack roll (not just those targeting Deflection). As mentioned in the previous thread some attacks seem to break Wizard's Double whether they hit you or not, but these are very unique circumstances from what I've seen and for the most part Wizard's Double works as intended. Buutttt... in 3.08 these uniforms are now going to get a nerf to +9/+9 in the respective defences. This is significant, as this now means the best possible Deflection granted by clothing is by the Cape of the Master Mystic at +12, meaning an 8 Deflection loss from the build due the +20 originally offered by the outfits. Bummer. This prompted me to re-evaluate what the goal of the entire build should be (rather than just looking to hit arbitrarily high defences as I was doing before) and see whether, with the loss in defences due to the pirate uniform nerfs, if I could still meet this specific goal. So here we go: What's the point Jojobobo (of the build, of course)?!?! So I decided the new underlying goal of the build should be it is now to obtain grazes/misses only, in all defences. As Boeroer pointed out in the previous thread, Wizard's Double is broken by a hit/crit with any attack roll no matter what defence it targets - so if you want to maintain it graze/miss only is a must. On an attack roll where your defence minus opponent's accuracy = 0, on the 1-100 attack roll 1-15 results in a miss, 16-50 results in a graze, and 51-100 results in a hit. Every point of defence you have over an opponent's accuracy is subtracted from the attack roll, broadening that miss chance and reducing the hit chance. As the standard window for a hit is from 51-100, you need defences 50 higher than the accuracy of the opponents attack to ensure graze/miss only. Naturally this means I need to know how accurate boss monster attacks are in order to ensure I'm 50 defence over them, which I've tested out and will get onto in a little bit. What was learnt in the 3.07 test of the build Attribute Spread, Race, Talent Choices and Spells In terms of designing the attribute spread, what I did was assume max Resolve and reverse-engineer the levels of the other attributes to hit the levels of defence needed to get grazes and hits from boss monster attacks (with is done with simple algebra like I did in the first thread, taking opponents accuracy +50 - what I would need in a particular defence for graze/miss - then subtracting all the bonuses I would get to leave me an amount of defence that had to be made up from innate attribute scores). However, that's not exactly presentable, so instead I thought I'd lay down the attribute spread and show the work up to specific defence scores in the next section. So... Defensive Benchmarks In terms of defence, I checked my saves just before a few key fights on a old character to see what the enemy was hitting. I didn't have a save before Magran's Faithful, but I think if I'm a good match for Thaos I shouldn't be too troubled by that particularly bounty. Here are the accuracy benchmarks, and the required defence therefore to get a graze/miss: Alpine Dragon wing attack 154 accuracy vs. Reflex. 204 Reflex needed. Turisulfus attack 134 accuracy vs. Deflection. 184 Deflection needed. Turisulfus Wing Slam 150 accuracy vs. Fortitude. 200 Fortitude needed. Turisulfus Fear Aura 150 accuracy vs. Will. 170 Will needed with Looped Rope and Mental Fortress. Thaos Cleansing Flames 141 accuracy vs. Deflection (his pesky Symbol of Woedica gives him +30 acc). 191 Deflection needed. I also checked the Kraken and Concelhaut, but the accuracy of their attacks weren't as high as the benchmarks set above. Defiant Resolve procs all the time against dragons, and so can be factored in there, but not against Thaos. From here I wanted two separate defensive modes... Deflection/Reflex/Fortitude/Will - 184/204/200/170 (at least) for the Alpine Dragon/Llengrath fight, and... Deflection - 191 for Thaos without Defiant Resolve (buffing the other defences as normal). Alpine Dragon/Llengrath mode: Thaos mode: Conclusions Overall this post demonstrates how on solo a Deflection/Reflex/Fortitude/Will spread of 188/205/204/173 can be obtained for the Llengrath fight, which with buffs against fear effects (+20 Looped Rope, +10 Mental Fortress) means that for most of the fight the dragons will only be capable of grazes or misses (predominantly misses) and Llengrath herself will outright miss you all the time (or close enough to it, her accuracy is way lower than the dragons). Likewise it demonstrates that 192 Deflection is possible for the Thaos fight, 51 points higher than his Cleansing Flames accuracy (I know his grazes with that still hurt a lot, but again he should be predominantly missing, and one or two grazes are do-able). I also wanted to address the nerf to the pirate armor coming in 3.08 and how that effected the build concept from the previous thread. With working out the necessary Deflection needed for Thaos, and throwing in Mental Fortress to keep my defences up against Turisulfus's Fear Aura, the answer is not very much. With the addition of Envenomed Strike, this build should work as an extremely tanky front-liner with some heavy hits to boot (you can go for Plate with this build and with Second Skin, Iron Skin and a DR survival resting bonus hit 30+ DR - on top of the already massive defence scores). Naturally, I'll be restarting this character and avoiding the pirate armor to ensure it's solo Expert PotD viable, so it'll take me quite some time before a full class build surfaces, but the bare bones of it are all here for anyone wanting to play it a little earlier. Hope someone enjoyed, I thought the drilling down into enemy accuracy in this thread added a lot in demonstrating how Wizard's Double is maintainable even in the hardest of fights. Have a nice day!

Here's another video showing how a paladin is able to tank the adra dragon in potd and without heals - no traps, no cheap tactics. Base stats - wild orlan 17mig/15con/4dex/20per/3int/18res. Adragans had to be killed first to prevent summons/healing for the dragon... I used jolting touch scrolls because they're common/easy to craft and don't require high lore. https://youtu.be/0nNLwfGrpKQ

I haven't played this game since release, got to the giant Dragon at the end/optional boss and stopped playing. Lost my save and playing it again on PotD and was curious what you guys would recommend as the best AI Tank. Right now I'm playing as a Cipher, my Main Tank is a Paladin AI I made through the Inn Paladin Tank http://imgur.com/S8ZAs9r and as a side mention, this is what my Cipher looks like http://imgur.com/ihCcxMF All of the recommendations for classes on this part of the forums are for player characters and the majority of research I've done for the game is all outdated and most being pre-2.0 let alone 3.0. I've never played on PotD before but going from the Sticky on the Reddit for Pillars of Eternity and here as well it's mentioned that I shouldn't wear any armor and just clothing, BUT, if I don't, right now at the start of the game all of my Tanks die instantly. So I have no idea what to do. I'd like to use the companions from the game itself but you can customize their stats so I'm left with a limited choice at the beginning, I have the Wizard and Fighter with blonde hair.

Hi guys, I am one of mad man and I am going to try the game hard way for the first run. So I will play expert,Iron, and hardest dificulty. In this seting It will definately need character which is able to survive. For the first try I will try this: Race: Moon Godilke (because of healing wave at 75%, 50% and 25% each encounter) Class Paladin, The shieldbearers of Elcga (Mainly because I am benevolent, protective and diplomatic. So it will be my king of guy) Ability: Lay on Hands Attributes: (This I write at work just from my memory so it may not be exact. Numbe includes bonuses for race and culture) Might : 14 Constitution : 9 Dexterity: 4 Perception: 18 Inteligence: 15 Resolve: 18 As Background I choose Mercenary. Build is made this way because I tryed to maximalize deflection, Buff areas and duration and healing. But yes... Const is pretty low and it makes a room for disaster with permadeth option on. But I somehow hope that Quality is better than quantity. The goal is to have good secondary/support tank. I intent to have fighter as main tank. With Paladin I want tu support, protect, survive and be a leader type in conversation and events. For sure I am posting it here, to get a chance from experienced players feedback. (Please keep spoilers at minimum.) So feel free to post your point of view.

This is a tank build for PotD. It's designed to be an unmovable object, putting up with any punishment your enemies throw at you, while providing a modicum of support for your party. It does very little else. If you want a tank you can micromanage, or one that can deliver a respectable amount of damage or CC, you need a different class. Also, I would recommend this build only for the Watcher, since Faith and Conviction is currently bugged on hireling Paladins and you need those extra defenses. Note: There's a lot of discussion on this board about whether Paladins are weaker than other classes (yes) and what should be done to improve them. I'd prefer if that discussion remain in preexisting threads and not migrate here. This is for taking the Paladin class as it currently stands and making the most useful tank of it we can, not for debating what the class should and should not be. Race: Wild Orlan has the best ability bonuses for pumping Deflection, and Defiant Resolve gives you a nice defensive buff when Will gets targeted. As an added bonus, Orlan PCs seem to get more race-specific dialogue than other options, thanks to Fantasy Racism. Your other good options are Coastal Aumaua for the bonus against Proning and Stunning attacks, since those break your engagements, or Moon Godlike if you want some extra healing for you and your party, though later in the game you might find that your Endurance doesn't dip much or very often. Pale Elves are also nice for the added DR against Fire and Frost. Order: I recommend picking based on how you want to roleplay your character. If that's not a factor, you could consider them based on order-specific talents, but to be honest, most of them aren't useful for this build. Of the talents that are useful, most of them are only useful for getting through the early game and don't scale well beyond that. Since the Darcozzi Paladini have the one order talent that's useful the whole game, I recommend them if you don't care about roleplaying factors. If all you want is to get Faith and Conviction up quickly, however, you might go with the Goldpact Knights, as Rational and Stoic seem to be very easy to raise quickly. Attributes: The build I used for my PotD run was Might 2/Con 15/Dex 3/Per 20/Int 18/Res 19. After seeing how little use I got out of that extra health beyond the first few levels, though, I'd be inclined to swap Might and Con for better healing off of Lay on Hands. In fact, since the base durations on a lot of your abilities are pretty high to begin with, the best route might be Might 17/Con 3/Dex 3/Per 20/Int 15/Res 19, though that might give you trouble extending your aura over the whole party. I wouldn't bother with Dexterity in any case, as you don't have the melee damage to care about attack speed or enough active abilities to worry about how quickly you can fire them off. You can't dump Might and Con or your Fort defense will be terrible, and if you dump Intellect you're weakening Lay on Hands and might have problems getting your aura to stretch over the party. Skills/Culture: Take either Aedyr or Ixamitl Plains for the extra Resolve to keep Deflection and Concentration high, and grab your favorite +2 Lore background. Your stats and lack of anything better to do make you one of the better options for scroll-user in the party and it gives you more dialogue options. You've got a good baseline in Athletics already, so if you want to pump that too for scripted interactions, you're in good shape. Survival unlocks a few dialogue options if you have it in the 4-6 range (though I spotted one at 9) and can provide a nice boost to the duration of food and potions if you have points to spare, but I'd rely on someone else for scripted interactions with it. A little bit of stealth is nice for positioning, but otherwise skippable (I've only seen one dialogue option unlocked by Stealth, and that was at level 4, for the record). Abilities/Talents: Now to the nuts and bolts of the guide. I'll go level by level. Level 1: Lay on Hands. The tooltip on this one is misleading; it's actually one of the more powerful heals available in the early game, especially if you have high Intellect to boost it. It's single target, so only really good for helping a party member who's getting focused, but for that job it's better than what Priests or Druids will be able to provide for several levels. It can even be used on yourself if you need it. Level 2: Hold the Line. You need that extra engagement to tank properly, end of story. Level 3: Aura. This comes down to preference and party composition. The elephant in the room is the Priest; two of the Priest's bread-and-butter buffs, Armor of Faith and Bless, don't stack with the bonuses provided by Zealous Endurance and Zealous Focus, respectively. I prefer Zealous Endurance anyway, because it's only slightly worse than Armor of Faith, and that makes for one less spell your Priest needs to cast. If, for some reason, you aren't running with a Priest in your party, you might want Zealous Focus instead to make up for the missing accuracy; you can also take it and the Critical Focus talent if you want to stack hit-to-crit conversion. I prefer holding choke points to kiting, so I don't see much use in Zealous Charge, but if it fits your tactics, go for it. Level 4: Weapon and Shield Style. Cornerstone tanking talent which gives you a nice boost to deflection and shores up your Reflex defense, which is hurting a little from dumping Dexterity. If you're playing a Shieldbearer, you might consider Shielding Touch, as the deflection bonus is still pretty useful at this level, especially since you're already using Lay on Hands on allies getting focused by melee or ranged attackers, in all likelihood. The bonus doesn't scale, though, so it will become negligible later on. Level 5: Liberating Exhortation. This is not a very good ability. Most debuffs are AoE, so this is like trying to put out a forest fire with a tea cup full of water, and you can't even use it on Charmed or Dominated party members. At best, you can use it to negate a paralyze or stun on a party member you need active, or neutralize accuracy debuffs on one of your casters before they fire off some CC. If you're playing Darcozzi, though, you're about to get a talent that will make it worthwhile. Level 6: Inspiring Liberation (Darcozzi). +10 to accuracy for 20 seconds (boosted by Intellect) twice each encounter is nothing to sneeze at. The fact that it also cancels any debuffs on your ally is icing. If you're not a Darcozzi, just move up the schedule of defensive talents, or you could slip in Critical Focus if you grabbed the Zealous Focus aura. Level 7: Reviving Exhortation. The best of a bad lot. It's an encounter revive, which isn't bad per se, but the ability is currently bugged. It'll get your ally back up, but it'll probably drop them back down after the duration is up thanks to the massive Endurance penalty it inflicts. The only other option here that's worth anything is Deprive the Unworthy, which is useful in a couple of fights, but most of the tough enemies you encounter aren't tough because of their buffs, and you probably have someone else who can suppress buffs. Edit: Alternate Pick: A few people recommend taking Sworn Enemy here as an accuracy boost and a way to slip in a bit more damage. It works well if you've got a weapon property that debuffs on a hit/crit, like Disorienting or Stunning. If you're not playing a Darcozzi, you could even take this at level 5 instead of Liberating Exhortation, in case you want Deprive the Unworthy or are holding out for a bug fix on Reviving Exhortation. Level 8: Cautious Attack. More deflection. Level 9: Reinforcing Exhortation. Once again, the best of bad options. Your Paladin probably doesn't have anything better to do, so dropping a Deflection buff on an ally taking heat is something at least. Assuming your Priest can't be bothered to lay down a Circle of Protection or the like. You might consider going back for Deprive the Unworthy instead, if you need that buff suppression. There's also Righteous Spirit, but enemies don't seem inclined to try to Charm or Dominate your Paladin in the first place so it's somewhat marginal. Level 10: Superior Deflection. More deflection. You might actually be doing pretty well on deflection by now, in which case you can swap this one with the level 12 talent. Level 11: Hastening Exhortation. Finally something good. Attack speed buffs aren't that common, and now you've got one that lasts 30+ seconds. Level 12: Deep Faith. Rounding out the defensive bonuses here. Now, if you aren't playing Darcozzi or didn't pick up Critical Focus or any of the other order talents, you have a spare talent here. There's really not that much left that's useful. You could take Greater Lay on Hands, but you probably stopped relying on that ability a long time ago. You could take Fast Runner or Graceful Retreat for those times when you really need to re-position your Paladin, but that doesn't come up much at all. Your Fortitude defense is probably still lagging behind your other defenses, so you could always take Bear's Fortitude. This is why I'm not too opposed to taking an order talent that helps you out in the early game but doesn't scale; once you've got those core defensive talents, there's nothing else to take, really. Equipment: Grab a hatchet early for the extra deflection and use the best shield you can find. Your weapon damage is unimportant, so look for something that has a good support special. Shatterstar and Measured Restraint both have Guarding to give you an extra engagement and can be obtained relatively early. If you think you're just fine with two engagements, you could use something with Draining, but you probably don't hit hard enough or often enough for that to be significant. Look for something with Disorienting or Marking (assuming that one actually works) to help your allies out instead. After you retrieve the stolen shipment for the blacksmith in Gilded Vale, you should buy the Outworn Buckler, strap it to your arm, and never take it off. The Herald ability provides a +5 bonus to all defenses, including Deflection, to your entire party. That makes it a +13/+5/+5/+5 shield. Make it Fine/Exceptional when you get the resources and level necessary, and it will treat you well. Aside from those considerations, try to keep your Paladin equipped with the best Of Deflection/Protection items you can find, and prioritize Resolve and Perception boosting items while also boosting Might and Intellect if you can. The best Resolve/Perception boosting items go in the Neck slot, so focus on getting Rings for your protection items. If you need to stretch your aura further, the Boots of Zealous Command can be bought from Winfrith in Dyrford. There's not much else that's useful for you in the Boot slot, so you may as well. There you have it, a tough tank with some situational support abilities that you can point at enemies and forget about. If anybody can think of a good talent I've overlooked for that last non-Darcozzi talent slot, let me know.

Deflection stacking, deflection stacking all the way. A character with very high Deflection enjoys many advantages. He lasts very long in combat, and being heavily outnumbered and surrounded doesn't bother him that much, because it doesn't make him easier to hit. Deflection also avoids many attacks altogether (Knocknown, poison, disease as secondary effects). I don't read about DR stacking on this forum nearly as often. Don't you think DR stacking is too weak ? DR comes with more limits, for example at least 20% damage always goes through. Each attack always deals damage no matter how thick your armor. Unless it doesn't hit at all. Games like DCSS have limits on similar mechanics, such as shield parry. Each subsequent attack has a higher chance to hit. In PoE terms, it could be that when you are attacked, you get -5 to Deflection for 1 second (STACKS).

Hello Theorycrafters, I'm thinking about running a Hybrid Dual Wield Fighter as a main. The idea is to use Dual Weapons and KDs as crowd control in one slot, while still being able to tank when switching to a handaxe and shield in the second slot. I do intend to run a main tank alongside him though. anyway, currently the plan looks like this: Might 14 Constitution 06 Dexterity 18 Perception 14 Intelligence 10 Resolve 16 Level Ability Talent 1 Knock Down 2 Bonus KD 3 Defender 4 Wary Defender 5 Disciplined Barrage 6 Two Weapon Style 7 Weapon Spec 8 Vulnerable Attack 9 Vigorous Defense 10 Weapon Focus 11 Into the Fray or Clear Out 12 Weapon Mastery I'm leaning towards Wild Orlan and Maces/Noble weapon Specialization. As it stands, the build will come out 18 points short on deflection compared to a dedicated Tank fighter and a few points short on other defenses. On the offensive side, his damage increasing talents hit late and are few. though from the whole fighter set, what I miss out on is only savage attack and confident aim; and of course 6 points of might. Of course, the fighter is already a bit short on +% damage talents compared to other classes, but then again, most of it is covered by enchantments in late game anyway. I know, PoE isn't the best game if you enjoy hybrid builds, but what are your thought on the build? viable (I know it's playable, which build isn't)? Any comments for improvements (aside from: stop trying to make a hybrid of course)? Thanks and happy discussing!